Use of database systems for non-traditional applications has prompted the development of new transaction models whose semantics vary from the traditional model, as well as from each other. This project is concerned with the development of a framework for supporting various transaction models in an extensible manner. ECA (event-condition-action) rules are defined at the system level, in contrast to the ECA rules currently supported at the application level. The rules apply to significant operations of a transaction and/or data structures and are used to support both traditional and extended transaction models. Formalization of the interaction among various transaction models allows the use of different transaction models by different applications on the same database management system (DBMS). The results of this project will further enhance the use of database systems -- for new classes of applications (e.g., workflow and enterprise modeling) that cannot be currently supported directly by traditional DBMSs.
